Abstract
Commenting on Randall Peerenboom’s analysis of an October 2014 decision by China’s ruling Communist Party on legal reform, I make two points here. First, I argue that Peerenboom’s in my view inaccurate account of (positivistic and naturalist) liberal conceptions of law prevents him from understanding the implications of this decision’s deeply illiberal commitment to power concentration and Party supremacy over law. This account fails to appreciate the resources which liberalism offers to engage critically with the operation of a legal system such as that of China, where – as I point out drawing on my work on human rights lawyers – repression of legal and political rights advocacy have been worsening. Second, I suggest that both the Decision and Peerenboom’s analysis do not fully take into account the nature and scope of the challenges the Party-State is facing, especially the challenge arising from an increasing momentum for civic activism and civil disobedience.
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Notes
‘CCP Central Committee Decision Concerning Some Major Questions in Comprehensively Moving Governing the Country According to the Law Forward, translated by Rogier Creemers and Jeremy Daum. https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/ccp-central-committee-decision-concerning-some-major-questions-in-comprehensively-moving-governing-the-country-according-to-the-law-forward/?utm_source=The+Sinocism+China+Newsletter&utm_campaign=57cbf7cd4e-Sinocism10_29_1410_29_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_171f237867-57cbf7cd4e-29606421&mc_cid=57cbf7cd4e&mc_eid=dcccecffb2. 28 October 2014.
Hart (1994).
Peerenboom (2002).
Peerenboom, doi:10.1007/s40803-015-0003-9. Section 2.
Peerenboom, doi:10.1007/s40803-015-0003-9. Section 3.
Fuller (1969).
Peerenboom, doi:10.1007/s40803-015-0003-9. Section 3.2.
Such an assessment might have to be made of the post-Mao reforms, although in my view, there have been contradictory developments, and the system has I some ways got better.
Shapiro makes this very clear. Scott Shapiro, What Is the Internal Point of View? http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2338&context=fss_papers. 1 January 2006.
Hart (1994, p. 117).
Hart (1994, p. 210).
Peerenboom, doi:10.1007/s40803-015-0003-9. Section 2.
Peerenboom, doi:10.1007/s40803-015-0003-9. Section 3.3.
For a discussion of one of these, the shuanggui or ‘two prescribed’ system, see Donald Clarke, Discipline Inspection Commissions and Shuanggui Detention. http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2008/03/shuanggui-and-e.html. 1 March 2008.
Art. 5 of the Constitution states that ‘[…] All State organs, the armed forces, all political parties and public organizations and all enterprises and institutions must abide by the Constitution and other laws. All acts in violation of the Constitution or other laws must be investigated. No organization or individual is privileged to be beyond the Constitution or other laws.’ http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/Constitution/node_2825.htm.
Nathan (2015).
Pils (2014).
ChinaLawTranslate (2014), posted in translation 11 December.
Peerenboom, doi:10.1007/s40803-015-0003-9. Section 3.1.
China Digital Times (2013). The author currently is serving a prison sentence for his role in this movement.
Johnson (2014).
Social media communication by a human rights lawyer (anonymised), October 2014.
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This article is a commentary to doi:10.1007/s40803-015-0003-9.
E. Pils: Reader in Transnational Law, King’s College London and Non-Resident Senior Research Fellow, NYU U.S.-Asia Law Institute.
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Pils, E. China, the Rule of Law, and the Question of Obedience: A Comment on Professor Peerenboom. Hague J Rule Law 7, 83–90 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40803-015-0005-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40803-015-0005-7